Lynn's streak ends as Rangers' bats struggle

July 17th, 2019

ARLINGTON -- Lance Lynn’s five-game winning streak came to an end on Tuesday night, while the Rangers’ struggles against left-handed pitching continued. 

Lynn gave up five runs in six innings and the home team couldn’t overcome the deficit against D-backs pitchers in a 9-2 loss at Globe Life Park. The Rangers have lost three straight and nine of their last 13.

Lynn was 5-0 with a 2.00 ERA and had won his last six decisions. The two teams were 1-1 going into the fifth before Lynn gave up a two-run single to Ketel Marte. Ildemaro Vargas hit a two-run home run off Lynn in the sixth inning.

“Today was bad all-around,” Lynn said. “We came out flat and we never got back to it. That’s part of it. We've got to be better tomorrow.”

Manager Chris Woodard said there weren’t many balls hit hard off Lynn. He gave up eight hits and only three had an exit velocity of higher than 80 miles per hour, according to Statcast. But Lynn found that to be of no consolation.

“No,” Lynn said. “I gave up five runs in six innings and didn’t give my team a chance to win, and that’s part of it.”

D-backs rookie left-hander Alex Young, making his third Major League start, held the Rangers to one run in 5 1/3 innings. Joey Gallo hit his 22nd home run off Young but the Rangers were still just 3-for-18 off him.

Overall, including relievers Andrew Chafin and T.J. McFarland, the Rangers were 4-for-26 off left-handers on the night, dropping their season average to .231. That’s the lowest number against left-handers in the American League. Right now it is also the lowest ever by Texas in one season, and so is its .303 on-base percentage.

“We address it all the time,” Woodward said. “Certain lefties give us trouble, this guy he is more of a command lefty than a power lefty. Tomorrow we are going to see [Robbie Ray] a different kid of lefty. Some days you see the crafty lefty who is down in the zone, just off the strike zone. Tomorrow we are going to see a power lefty. We have had trouble with both. We have addressed it. We have to do a better job or teams are going to stack lefties against us.”

They already are. D-backs manager Torey Lovullo centered his game plan around having Chafin and MacFarland ready to go late against the Rangers.

“A lot of good baseball people are helping us make good decisions to set things up like that,” Lovullo said. “ It's not by accident that we're coming in here with a couple of lefties." 

The Rangers are hoping Hunter Pence’s right-handed bat will help. He was activated off the injured list on Tuesday after missing 23 games with a strained right hamstring. He is hitting .314 off left-handers this year and the Rangers hit .205 off them during the 23 games he missed.

Pence was 0-for-4 on Tuesday with a big at-bat coming in the eighth. The Rangers were trailing 5-2 when Pence batted with two on and one out against reliever Yoan Lopez. Pence hit a line drive but right at first baseman Jake Lamb, who made the catch and doubled off Shin-Soo Choo to end the threat.

The D-backs then broke it open with four runs in the ninth.

“I looked out at the end of the game and saw the full moon and knew something weird is going on,” Woodward said. “Just a weird, weird game. Offensively we got off our game plan. [Young] is pretty good at teasing you. Nobody has really hit him hard. We hit a lot a balls off the end of the bat, never really squared anything up on him.”